Mayor Rybak celebrates opening of new Children’s Specialty Clinic in Minneapolis
Children’s Hospital expansion means jobs and improved streetscape
June 24, 2009 (MINNEAPOLIS, MN) Mayor R.T. Rybak today joined the leaders of Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota to celebrate the completion of the first phase of the hospital’s largest expansion ever with the opening of a new Children’s Specialty Center. Mayor Rybak hailed the effort for the jobs it will create and for the improvements to Chicago Avenue that will result.
"As the City of Minneapolis works to create jobs and improve our streets, we could not ask for a better partner than Children’s Hospital," Mayor Rybak said. "This historic expansion of Children’s Hospital, marked today with the completion of this Specialty Center, is not only allowing us to put more people to work, but is helping us to re-make Chicago Avenue into an even stronger spine for our largest job sector – the health and life sciences industry."
Through its innovative Workforce Agreement model, the City worked with Childrens Hospital on the expansion effort to maximize job creation for near-by Minneapolis residents. Through this Agreement, 32 near-by residents and 59 residents from other Minneapolis neighborhoods were hired to help build the Specialty Center. The Center also employed 22 resident apprentices and has hired 12 student interns through the Citys STEP-UP youth summer job program. Children’s Hospital employs more than 2,300 people at its Minneapolis campus.
"The completion of the Children’s Specialty Center will enhance the leading-edge care that Children’s has provided for more than 85 years," said Alan L. Goldbloom, MD, Children’s of Minnesota President and CEO. "This is an important milestone that will make a real difference in the lives of the children and families we serve."
Located across the street from the existing Minneapolis campus at 26 th Street and Chicago Avenue in south Minneapolis, the new five-story Children’s Specialty Center will centralize several outpatient specialties, including cystic fibrosis, diabetes and genetics. The space will also house the Hematology/Oncology Clinic and within it the new C.H. Robinson Infusion Center, the largest pediatric infusion center in the Upper Midwest.
In addition to creating jobs and providing health care, the hospital expansion effort also aids Minneapolis’ goal of remaking Chicago Avenue to be more pedestrian-friendly with wider sidewalks and boulevards, improved public gathering spaces, and more public art. The City and Children’s worked together to ensure a new facility that uses street-friendly architecture and landscaping to enhance Chicago Avenue.
Features that will be incorporated into the site include solar light sculptures created by artist Brad Goldberg, a healing garden, specially designed blade art lighting along a new plaza and sidewalks, public art displays, and a customized bus shelter.
Published Jun. 24, 2009